Entitled ‘Scientific Researches or an Experimental Lecture on the Powers of Air’, this caricature makes fun of scientific lectures at the Royal Institution, London and features a number of scientists of the day. At this time natural philosophers and scientists were studying the effects on health of the air we breathe.
Sir John Coxe Hippisley (1745/6-1825), a politician, is being experimented upon with laughing gas (nitrous oxide) to produce wind. The man conducting the experiment is Thomas Young (1773-1829), a physician and natural philosopher who lectured at the Royal Institution in 1802. He is assisted by Humphry Davy (1778-1829), a British chemist. In the doorway stands Sir Benjamin Thompson, later Count von Romford (1753-1814), the founder of the Royal Institution.
The work was created by James Gillray (1757-1815), a British artist and caricaturist, and published by Hannah Humphrey (c. 1745-1818).
publisher: Humphrey, Mrs. Hannah, artist: Gillray, James
Place made: London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
